Wickedly Haunted Thursdays-Gettysburg, PA.

 Hey Blogland! Today is Thursday & that means another haunted tale from Wickedly Haunted Thursdays. Today's haunting is very,very sad. But even very sad stories need to be told. I spent a lot of time in Gettysburg while growing up. My mother would load us kids & some of the neighbor's children as well into the big old Country Squire Station Wagon & off we went for adventure. Many a day was spent in Gettysburg. My older brother Don & my cousin David & I would traipse through museums & battle fields. My brother was always the Confederate & my cousin the Union soldier. We would re-enact the battles in our own way using tons of imagination & facts that we had gleaned from so much time spent with the history of the place.

 A Union soldier was found dead on the battle field in a secluded spot, clutching a photo of his three small children.

 The soldier had no identification on him & people wanted to find out who he was to possibly return the photo to his children & to let them know that with his last dying breath, their father was thinking of them & holding them close. The Philadelphia Enquirer printed the photo in hopes that someone would recognize the children & in turn the authorities could find out who he was.

These were his children:

 The mans wife Phelinda  Humiston, came forward. She found out the fate of her husband & received the photo. So many kind & generous  people sent money to help the widow & her now fatherless children. So many that Phelinda was able to help other children by opening an orphanage for children from 11 different states who had become orphans from the war.

Phelinda came to care for over 60 children at the orphanage.  Things cannot always stay the same & for some unknown reason  Phelinda moved away & left the orphanage in the hands of Rosa Carmichaels. Phelinda had no way of knowing that she was leaving her innocent charges in the hands of a monster. Rosa beat the children & tortured them. Some being shackled  to the basement walls & left to die.

A young girl managed to run away & tell her stories to the authorities. An investigation ensued & her stories, to the horror of all were found out to be true. 

Children were tied to fences in the hot sun until they had severe burns. Torture devices were found in the house also.

 The orphanage was closed & left unused until it was made into the Civil War Museum in 1950.  The shackles can still be seen hanging from the basement walls & visitors to the museum hear children crying & also feel tugs at their clothing made by unseen little hands. 

Many Ghost Hunters have investigated the old orphanage & have collected electronic voice phenomena. I have been to the Civil War Museum many times & I can tell you that there is something there. The feeling you get in the pit of your stomach tells a story of total sadness.

Phelinda created a house of love & family for those young orphans that Rosa transformed into her own private hell with her in charge. Luckily for those surviving orphans that one young girl managed to get away & save them in time. Sadly, those that did not make it out alive are still there tied to the place of their death.

Gettysburg saw many horrors during the Civil War & it has many, many ghosts with stories to tell........

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